Fantasy Football 2018: Best and Worst Draft Picks

SEATTLE, WA – DECEMBER 23: Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs looks to pass to teammate Damien Williams #26 (not pictured) for a touchdown in the second quarter of the game against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field on December 23, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) Fantasy Football /

With the 2018 fantasy football season over, let’s look back at what players were the most and least valuable picks for your fantasy team.

The 2018 fantasy football season began with the Le’Veon Bell situation. Whoever had the first overall pick had a tough decision. Pick the sure thing in Todd Gurley or pick Bell and he hopefully returns to his team sooner rather than later. The Bell owners probably regret that pick and likely didn’t win their league.

There were a few other top-20 picks that let fantasy owners down. On the other hand, there were many picks that were drafted outside the top 100 or not drafted at all that propelled fantasy owners into the playoffs and the championship game.

To those failures, I can’t blame you for taking that player with that pick. The numbers lined up. They had a good season last year. The situation looked good. Whether it was injuries, game flow or bad matchups, that player just didn’t live up to their draft value.

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Here are the best and worst draft picks for the 2018 fantasy football season. I’ll go position by position for the best and worst.

Quarterback

Not counting Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was pushed into the top 10 according to ESPN’s ADP, the worst quarterback pick has to be Tom Brady. He was the consensus No. 2 quarterback after Aaron Rodgers. Even if his weapons weren’t that great, he and Bill Belichick somehow make it work.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this season. Without having played Week 17, Brady is ranked 13th. He has just five fantasy points more than Mitchell Trubisky. It didn’t help that he scored just five points in Week 16.

Brady had a bad three-game stretch where he threw just one touchdown. He did have one 300-yard game and missed a second by six yards.

Depending on what the New England Patriots do in the offseason, it may be wise to stay away from Brady. There are plenty of other quarterbacks that can give you consistent scoring.

On the other side of the draft board, the obvious answer is Patrick Mahomes. He played in one game last season so fantasy owners didn’t know what to expect from the second-year quarterback.

He is ranked as the best quarterback, helped by his two six-touchdown and five four-touchdown games. He has 70 more fantasy points than the No. 2 ranked quarterback.

Mahomes was drafted 13th among quarterbacks, most likely as a backup or QB2 in two-quarterback leagues. No one was expecting this kind of season, which is why he is my most valuable quarterback.

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Fantasy Football 2018 Best and Worst Draft Picks – Running Backs

The running back pool was hard to navigate through. With many teams using two or three options in the backfield, finding those running backs that will be an every-down option took a lot of research.

I can’t include Bell in this section. That would be too easy. The least valuable running back was Leonard Fournette. As the seventh running back taken in drafts, he’s let down everyone who thought he could repeat last season.

Fournette missed seven games and left early in two more. He did have a nice three-game stretch between Weeks 10 and 12, scoring 83 total points. But that wasn’t enough as he is the 39th-ranked running back.

Christian McCaffrey has been the most consistent running back this season. After splitting time with Jonathan Stewart last season, no one knew if he could handle a full workload. He can.

McCaffrey averages 14.3 rushing attempts and 7.1 receptions this season. He’s one of three running backs to record 1,000 rushing yards and 100 catches in a season. He was the 10th running back off the board so those owners who passed on him made a big mistake.

Digging deeper on the draft board, Phillip Lindsay is the big standout. He went undrafted in the NFL and in fantasy leagues. Everyone was targeting Royce Freeman and handcuffing him with Devontae Booker.

Lindsay averages 12.8 carries and2.3 receptions per game. He has over 1,000 rushing yards with nine touchdowns. After his Week 1 performance, Lindsay was a popular Week 2 waiver wire add.

McCaffrey and Lindsay will be drafted as top-10 running backs next season. Fournette may drop out of the top 15.

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Fantasy Football 2018 Best and Worst Draft Picks – WR’s

The NFL is becoming more of a passing league, which makes finding valuable wide receivers easier than ever before. It’s why the Pittsburgh Steelers finished with two top-10 pass catchers. One of them being the 22nd-drafted wide receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Smith-Schuster has eight 100-yard games this season. While he has just six touchdowns, he’s a valuable PPR play because of his volume of catches. Smith-Schuster had fewer than four catches in just one game this season.

Smith-Schuster had a 52.1 ADP in ESPN leagues, a sixth-round pick in 10-team leagues. He’s a top-15 wide receiver in drafts next season.

Injuries have plagued a lot of players’ season with AJ Green being one of them. Things were lining up for him to have a great season. He was the seventh wide receiver off the board. Green will have missed seven games this season after averaging 5.6 catches and 85.9 yards per game in the first eight weeks of the season.

Before getting traded to Dallas, Amari Cooper was a disappointing pick. He had only one touchdown in his first seven games this season. Since the trade, though, Cooper has six touchdowns.

The Chicago Bears signed Allen Robinson to a three-year, $42 million deal in the offseason. Trubisky, a second-year quarterback, was making some improvements but not enough to help Robinson. It hindered his value a bit.

Robinson has four touchdowns with just one 100-yard game this season. As a fifth-round pick and the 18th wide receiver drafted, he was expected to light up the stat sheets in Chicago. He is currently the 35th wide receiver in ESPN PPR scoring.

(Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images) /

Fantasy Football 2018 Best and Worst Draft Picks – TE’s

The tight end position had three names worth drafting within the first five rounds, Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce and Zach Ertz. Drafting anyone else was a roll of the dice.

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Because of being the first tight end drafted and where he currently stands, drafting Gronk led to a disappointing season. He had just two 20-plus scoring games and six games under 10 points not including the four games he didn’t play in this season.

With his injury history and cheaper options at the position, I would not draft Gronkowski on my fantasy teams next season.

One of the lucky rolls was San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle. Even with the multiple changes at quarterback, he’s still performing well. He has the most receiving yards by a tight end with 1,228 and ranks eighth with four touchdowns.

As a 13th-round pick, Kittle is ranked third in PPR scoring among tight ends.

Another surprising tight end was Eric Ebron. He signed with the Indianapolis Colts but they already had Jack Doyle on the roster. With the lack of a true No. 2 wide receiver, the Colts were able to utilize both tight ends.

Ebron broke out early while Doyle was out for five weeks. He is fifth in receiving yards, 690, and first in touchdowns, 12, among qualified tight ends. Ebron likely let some fantasy owners down with his combined 7.6 points in the fantasy playoffs, but he was one of the more reliable options throughout the season.

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Some of these players may repeat their performances in 2019. Some of them may not. There may be a whole new list of players at the end of next season. That is one of the joys, and tortures, of fantasy football. You never know who is going to break out or disappoint.

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